


The Road To Paris (Excerpts)

by Haberdasher



Category: Original Work
Genre: Bisexual Character, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexuality, Black Character(s), Canada, Character(s) of Color, Eventual Romance, Female Jewish Character, Friends to Lovers, Genderfluid, Genderfluid Character, Gray-Asexuality, Jewish Character, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Character of Color, LGBTQ Jewish Character(s), Middle Names, NaNoWriMo, Nonbinary Character, Other, Road Trips, Romance, Slow Romance, Summer, Summer Romance, Summer Vacation, Teen Romance, Teenagers, United States
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-03 06:50:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17279135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haberdasher/pseuds/Haberdasher
Summary: Two teenagers go on a road trip to every town called Paris in the United State (and one in Canada), learning about themselves and one another along the way.(Note: I will be posting snippets of this story here, not the entire thing. Also, what I'm posting will be unpolished. Any and all feedback is appreciated; I'm hoping that posting a few snippets will inspire me to actually get working on this again.)





	1. Wisconsin

“I’m bored.”

The car swerved violently to the right until it was on the shoulder of the road, then abruptly screeched to a halt roughly in the middle of nowhere.

The passenger turned towards the driver, confusion and outrage clear in the passenger’s eyes. “What the hell, Esther?”

The driver met the passenger’s gaze. “What do you mean, you’re bored?”

The passenger rolled her eyes. “I mean I’m bored, duh, not that hard to figure out. So why did you stop the car, huh?”

“We just started this road trip, Max. We haven’t even gotten out of Iowa yet. And if you’re bored  _ now _ , I don’t want to know what’ll happen a few days in. If all you’re going to do is complain about being bored the whole trip, I’m going to turn around now.”

“Esther, please don’t turn around. I really want to do this with you, I swear.”

“Then will you promise not to say that you’re bored the whole trip?”

Max let out a long sigh. “Sure, fine, I promise not to say that I’m bored again.”

“Besides, I thought you did a bunch of road trips before with your family.”

Max let out a snort of amusement. “Yeah, and I was bored out of my mind on all of those trips too. You should’ve talked to my parents about it before agreeing to go with me, they’ve got stories to tell… though at least you know I won’t be kicking your seat the whole time. Apparently that was a Thing I did a lot when I was younger.”

Esther couldn’t help but laugh a little at the mental picture of a young Max impatiently kicking one of her parents’ seat the whole time during a car ride. It sounded like the sort of thing that a young Max would do, knowing what Esther did about Max. “Don’t you have a sketchbook with you?”

“I’ve got, like, four of them, yeah. Though all but one of them are hiding somewhere in the back with all the other shit we brought with us.”

“Then if you’re so bored, why don’t you draw something?”

“We’re surrounded by corn fields, what is there to draw?”

“I don’t know, Max, think of something! You’re the artist, I’m sure you can come up with something to draw while you’re just sitting here.”

“Does that mean you’re going to be writing the whole time I’m driving, then? Is that part of your master plan?”

“I mean, probably, yeah, at least if it’s light out. Which it is. It’s not even noon yet, I think, because  _ someone _ wanted to leave extra early, if I recall right.”

“...Esther, can you start the car back up already? I promised not to say I’m bored or whatever, let’s keep moving.”

“Alright, alright.”

The car’s left blinker turned on, and after a brief pause to let traffic by, the two were once again on the road.

“I guess I can draw that cow. Nice-looking cow over there.”

“There’s a cow?”

“Yeah, just look to your right.”

“I’m not going to look to my right, Max. I’m driving. I’m keeping my eyes focused on the road, where they belong.”

“Alright, alright, jeez, miss perfect driver over here. We drove past the cow already anyway, so there’s nothing left for you to see- oh look, another cow!”

“I’m still not going to look.”

“Alright, I get it, I get it.”

“New rule: please don’t point out every animal we pass by while I’m driving. Because I’m not going to look anyway. And it’s kind of annoying, frankly.”

Max rolled her eyes again. “Fine, whatever. Just trying to do a little sight-seeing, don’t mind me.”

“We can sight-see when we stop somewhere. It shouldn’t be too much longer until we reach the first one. How far are we from the state border now?”

“Uh…”

“It should be on the mile markers.”

“Right. Looks like twenty and a half miles to go.”

“See, that’s not so bad! And it sounds like there’s plenty of animals for you to draw.”

“Yeah, I guess I can draw a cow in a field or something.”

“Sounds like a good plan.”

The car filled with silence for a few minutes.

As they approached the state border, fields gave way to houses gave way to taller buildings. Esther tried to keep her eyes focused on the road, but she couldn’t help but sneak a glance once or twice at the buildings that surrounded her, so different from what she knew back in her hometown.

“So this is Dubuque, right?”

“It sure is.”

“It’s… huge.”

Max smirked.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that!”

“Sure, it’s huge compared to Fairfield, maybe, but compared to Chicago or New York or Tokyo-”

“Or any number of other places I’ve never been, sure, yeah, I get it. But…” Esther bit the bottom of her lip before finishing her sentence. “But to me it seems huge, you get that?”

“I mean, I guess.”

“It’s a yes or no question, Max, there’s no ‘I guess’ about it.”

“Okay then, yes, I get it. I forget sometimes how you’ve basically never been anywhere-”

“I went to Atlanta to see my aunt and uncle when I was- eight, I think? But I don’t remember much about it anymore.”

“But you get my point, right?”

“I guess I do, sure.”

As the mile markers continued to tick down and Esther kept sneaking glances at the buildings of Dubuque, Max spoke up.

“Hey look, we’re almost there!”

Max set her sketchbook down and dramatically flung her arms out in front of her until her fingers were brushing against the windshield. “First one in Wisconsin!”

Esther laughed a little. “I’m not going to fight you over that one.”

“Because you’re driving, and all focused on the road and stuff?”

“Pretty much, yeah. And because it’s a silly thing to fight over.” After a brief pause in which they reached the state border and Max let out a whoop, Esther leaned back in her seat and said with a smile, “But I was the last one in Iowa.”

“Aww, c’mon!”

Esther laughed a bit more, and after a moment of hesitation Max laughed as well.

“See, you act all business-like and stuff, but I know you’re really a giant dork deep down, Esther. No reason to hide it from me.”

Esther stuck out her tongue as a response.


	2. Wisconsin, Again

The two walked into the building together. Esther hadn’t noticed the wording of the restaurant’s name from the street, but upon entering, she knew that its full name was Stumble Inn Bar and Grill; if the big red letters proclaiming the restaurant’s full name on the mirrored side of the restaurant hadn’t been enough of a tip-off, the large quantity and variety of alcoholic beverages displayed directly underneath those big red letters certainly would have clued her in that it was a bar first and a grill second. Several television sets were mounted in various places within the restaurant, all tuned to programs that Esther didn’t recognize and didn’t think looked especially promising. A wheel in bright colors was displayed prominently next to the collection of alcoholic beverages behind the bar, but what its purpose was eluded Esther at a glance. A dartboard was hanging from one of the walls. A handful of men were sitting at the bar, drinking, and all of them glanced up as Esther and Max entered the room; only one other group, a couple that looked to be in their mid-thirties, appeared to be eating there rather than just drinking.

Esther was feeling very much out of her element.

Esther and Max looked at one another for a long moment.

“Think they know we’re not from around here?” Max whispered.

“I would imagine so.” Esther whispered back. “In a town this small, we probably stick out like a sore thumb.”

After a moment of hesitation, Esther and Max walked together to one of the tables, one next to a window that showed what was happening on the adjacent street (which wasn’t much) and what looked to be a beautiful sunset from what they could see of it.

The waitress who came by after a minute or two of waiting was nice enough, grabbing water for the pair before they could even ask for it. When it came to ordering, though, they ran into a bit of a hiccup.

“And what would you two like this evening?” The waitress’ smile was wide and toothy, but the bags under her eyes told a different story.

“A bacon cheeseburger and fries for me, please!” Max said.

“Just a- a regular burger for me, please. And fries.”

“So that was one bacon cheeseburger and one regular cheeseburger, both with fries, right?”

“No, actually, I just want a burger.” Esther clarified. “No cheese. Just a regular burger.”

The waitress gave her a look that was hard to decipher before jotting something down in her notebook. “Alright, got it.”

As the waitress turned around and headed for the kitchen, Esther asked Max, “What do you think the odds are of me getting cheese on my burger even though I specifically told them not to do that?”

Max snorted. “Probably fairly good, though she did at least write it down. You should really try a cheeseburger some time, they’re good.”

Esther rolled her eyes. “Max, I’m not trying a cheeseburger, no matter how much you tell me how good they are. Still not gonna happen.”

“Fine, fine.”

“Can we talk about something else?”

Max yawned and stretched her arms out in an exaggerated manner. “I’m getting tired. It’s been a long day, you know?”

“You’ll wake up when you eat, I’m sure.”

“Do you know if there’s a hotel or something around here, or will we just have to fend for ourselves on that one?”

“There’s a hotel- or a motel, I think? But yeah, there’s a place for us to stay in town, I got it covered.”

“I’m glad one of us planned some of this out ahead of time at least.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Thank you.”

“For the record, you’re supposed to say that before I say you’re welcome. Just keep that in mind in the future.”

Max snorted. “Esther, you’re something else.”

“That sunset’s pretty, isn’t it?”

“You’re changing the subject.”

“Okay, so I am, but seriously, isn’t it-”

The waitress arrived with two plates of burgers and fries. “Now you ladies let me know if you need anything else, alright?”

“We will!” Esther responded.

Max rolled her eyes.

As the waitress walked away again, Esther asked quietly, “What was that about?”

“I dunno, I just… the ‘you ladies’ thing. I don’t like it.”

“Really? I thought it was kind of nice.”

“Well, I didn’t.”

Esther lifted up the bun of her burger to confirm that there was no cheese on it; after her initial inspection, she took a large bite of the burger. It was pretty good, but some of that may have been just because of how hungry she was- they hadn’t had much of a lunch.

Max lifted a piece of bacon off of her cheeseburger and dangled it in front of Esther. “Are you sure you don’t want to try this, just once?”

“I’m positive.”

Max waved around the piece of bacon a little. “But it’s so good!”

“I don’t want to hear about how good it is, I’m still not going to eat it whether it’s ‘so good’ or not.”

“Not even a bite? We’re on vacation, loosen up a little!”

“There’s no ‘vacation’ from kosher rules, Max, you should know that by now.”

“But-”

“I’m not eating your bacon, Max!”

The last sentence came out significantly louder than Esther had intended; her face turned red and hot as she noticed the other patrons of the restaurant staring at the two of them.

In a quieter tone of voice, she said, “Sorry, but-”

“No, no.” Max shoved the piece of bacon back onto her burger. “I’m sorry. You’re right, I should know better by now.”

Esther hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “I accept your apology. Just don’t do it again, alright?”

“Alright. Though I might need to start writing down all of these rules of yours.” Max paused before adding with a smile, “Besides, that just means more bacon for me.”

“Max-”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!”


End file.
